Decision by Council to approve 20-storey high rise at Main Beach comes at critical time for Gold Coast

TODAY’S decision to approve a 20-storey high rise for Main Beach comes at a critical juncture for our growing city where we must decide if we wish to build up or out.

Main Beach is an area that has retained its charm. Picture: Nigel Hallett

COUNCILLORS today voted to approve a Main Beach beachfront tower development. Everything about this decision shows the city is at a critical juncture.

The Glitter Strip at this moment can be likened to a teenager coming of age.

The Coast is no longer a beachside resort suburb of Brisbane. We are about to become a full-blown city.

Just like a teenager, the city is facing the challenges of those growing pains.

All of us are aware of these growth problems, every day we confront them. The most obvious is the traffic congestion and the number of highrises being built along the strip and CBD at Southport.

This growth is not going to stop. How big will this teenager get to grow? The forecasts are stunning.

The Main Beach beachfront high rise development which was today approved by council.

Demographer Bernard Salt says the Coast’s population will jump by 427,000 — or 76 per cent – to about one million in the next 25 years.

Higher-density living needs to be around the tram, but surely the first step for the council must be an informed development plan rather than adhoc planning which can translate to more expensive living.

We must go up rather than out. Two signature suburbs cater for that. Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach have enormous opportunities for tower growth.

But at Main Beach, the council needs to consider the medium density zoning under the City Plan. This is a Coast suburb with its own history and character.

The council needs to proceed here with caution. Part of Main Beach’s charm is the diversity of development from the Gold Coast Highway to the surfing beaches. Highrise towers have landscaped grounds on a large footprint, a sharp contrast to the application for the proposed tower today approved to be built on a tiny plot.

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There is much breathing space with smaller properties allowing tourists to see the wonderful links across the suburb from the yacht club east to the surf club and its neighbouring caravan park. Yes, there’s a millionaire’s row but part of the Main Beach appeal is its eclectic supporters, ranging from caravan park campers and boaties who visit the clubs to the affluent.

Main Beach is the residential heart of the Glitter Strip. Residents who dug in built our first community groups and have long protected the laidback lifestyle here.

There are other sections along the tram track, at Surfers, Broadbeach and Southport, where clever planners could “trade off” on the numbers lost by preserving Main Beach and build higher buildings on old vacant sites.

We should not jeopardise the charm that remains Main Beach in a rush to build skyscrapers, let alone 20 or 50-level apartment buildings.